System, apparatus, and method to indicate preferred access points and service providers

Abstract

The present invention is a system, apparatus, and method for a “Priority” field that is included in the information transmitted by an Access Point (AP) (801i) about its neighbor APs (801i) and the network service providers (SPs) that it supports. A “Priority” field (103i-6 154i.2 203.i.2 233 266) is included in at least one of a Neighbor Report element (100), an AP Channel Report element (150), and a service provider's information element (200 230 260). The service provider priority field (203.i.2 233 266) is contained in any protocol frame transmitted by the AP (801i) that contains information about one or more service providers that it supports. The “Priority” field (103i.6 154-i.2 203.i.2 233 266) contains a numeric value or a symbolic indicating a recommendation from the AP (801i) concerning which AP / APs and service provider(s) SP / SPs for a STA (802j) to scan first or access in an eventual roaming / accessing process. For roaming / accessing purposes, more than one neighboring AP (801i) can have the same priority value and not all the APs (801i) that are neighbors or support SPs necessarily have the same priority value.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0001]The present invention relates to a system, apparatus and method for prioritizing access points (APs) and / or service providers (SPs) for preferred connectivity thereto by a station (STA) in a wireless network.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]The support of access to STA-selected APs is a general requirement in any wireless system where the mobile stations access the network through APs or base stations, and for many real time based applications, any delay in the access process may degrade the quality of the service. The problem of minimizing the access delay remains a major challenge for most wireless system designers. One of the main issues is the limited ability of the mobile stations in discovering and maintaining network state information for use in optimization of the AP selection procedure. This problem is compounded by the STAs' need to have information about the service providers supported by an AP and / or neighboring APs in choosing an AP to access...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0009]For roaming, the present invention reduces the delay in this discovery phase and contributes to a decrease in the overall roaming delay, avoiding packet loss and waste of energy by the STAs. Therefore, mechanisms to minimize the discovery delay are a key feature of the present invention and contribute to optimizing roaming performance. Furthermore, the present invention takes network load considerations and QoS requirements into account by preferring for a STA to roam to a neighbor AP that is able to better support the QoS requirements.

[0010]The currently available mechanisms for minimizing discovery delay include channel lists and neighbor lists that do not allow a STA to differentiate between candidates, nor do these existing mechanisms provide enough information for the STAs to decide which is the best candidate AP or which AP to associate with first. The best channel and / or AP candidate for a given STA depends on several factors, such as relative position between the STA and the currently available APs and traffic load at the currently available APs, and this information is provided and used by the present invention so that an AP provides an indication of the channel and / or AP that is more appropriate for roaming at a given location and time.

[0016]With the priority indicated by an AP for SPs, a STA then tries to establish a connection with an SP having a highest indicated priority first, although the STA ultimately determines how to take into account the priorities provided by the AP when establishing a connection to an SP. Therefore, the AP and STA both gain by establishing a connection to the preferable SPs. A STA gains by having more access to the services, better QoS, better cost / value, better chance of admission, reliable / guaranteed service etc. An AP gains by having more STAs using services that it is better equipped to handle, has more profit potential, provides more user satisfaction, provides better QoS, etc.

Problems solved by technology

The currently available mechanisms for minimizing discovery delay include channel lists and neighbor lists that do not allow a STA to differentiate between candidates, nor do these existing mechanisms provide enough information for the STAs to decide which is the best candidate AP or which AP to associate with first.

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